RP: YSS Heartbreaker [Mission 4] The Word And Deed Go Hand In Hand

Shuttle Bay, Jodan

"Hai, Heartbreaker. Will continue with the mission."

With one eye still watching down the hallway, Ingrid couldn't stop glancing over her shoulder as the I'ee began dismantling the Vekimen fighter. She didn't know what they were doing, but ended up being a little impressed as the ship was readied for recycling.

Once Hasewega had brought Edtoto back to the group, Ingrid grabbed onto Edtoto's shoulder to keep her from following Hasewega as she investigated the hallway. "Just stay back here, for now," she said to her. Still holding her back, Ingrid turned and called for the I'ee to come over and collect Okami's head and return it to the shuttle and then resume their defensive positions.

After thanking the I'ee, Ingrid spoke to the team over the radio, "Jodan, keep pace with Hasewega, she's got point. If we know where Okami is, we recover her. If we can't, Edtoto, you'll have to tell us what our objective is right now. Move it!"

To Edtoto, she said, "Stick to me like glue. We're jerky if we get seperated. Just tell Hasewega where to go from behind her."

Half dragging Edtoto, Ingrid moved forward to make sure Hasewega didn't get herself caught alone too. As she moved into the darkness, she advised the team, "Switch to infrared and watch your corners."

Laderen Corridor, Chudan

Skade blinked as the SAINT went ahead and made first contact rather forcefully. Well, I guess this is her job. It's going to make talking to them a little awkward.

Laderen Corridor, Chudan

Takeshi was going to follow Skade's instructions to help Alexis, but before he could do anything the SAINT operative hit them. It was probably unwise to knock them out, but it was certainly the safest course of action. They could have been helpful, or they could have reacted violently. He stopped and then fell back, squeezing by the lithe blue Nekovalkyrja. "I will watch your rear, Skade-hei." The android said without realizing that could be misconstrued. He managed to turn around in the small tunnel and focus all of his senses on the approach. It was true that someone needed to watch their backs, but he couldn't help feeling like he was somehow neglecting his duty.

YSS Heartbreaker, Bridge

The Captain's eyes narrowed at that bit of information. "A fleet? In a graveyard?" Now was obviously not the time. "We shall discuss this at length later, Ambassador." While she had been expecting a chance to examine the brain-slave they'd discovered, Tsukisaki did not seem too upset by the sight of the infected shuttled melted into an unrecognizable lump. "Impressive weaponry. Please, ensure your relatives stay in the Vekimen shuttle bay. Both for their own safety and the safety of the station."


Main Corridor, Jodan

The trail became easier to follow, as the team switched to infrared. The warm blood led Sara around the same corner Edtoto had spotted movement at, the many branching paths they'd been warned about already making an appearance. Whatever had taken Okami's body was either not worried about being followed or was encouraging it, as the drizzles of hemosynth left behind made navigation far easier than they'd expected. Sara was leading the way, with Ingrid and Edtoto in the middle and Kiko and Yuko in the rear. The I'ee watched the group disappear into the darkness.

So far, it was all quiet. Their resident Vekimen knew it wasn't going to last. As her now stained armor dribbled more mess onto the corridors of the station, she almost didn't have to check the trail Sara was following to determine where they were headed. It was a 'neighborhood' of the station she was rather familiar with, as most of the Nar family lived and worked there. And, for better or for worse, it was also along the way to the control point she'd selected as their primary destination.


Laderen Corridor, Chudan

The first Vekimen went down in a heap, as the heavy hand of that Mindy targeted a sensitive spot on its exposed neck. The other had the briefest of warnings, hearing or feeling something unexpected. There was a hiss as it began to flash its fangs in a manner familiar to the trio, before Alexis sent it flopping to the ground as well. While they were both unconscious and no longer any sort of threat, it definitely hadn't been as painless and safe as a stun blast.

The small group had this corridor, and now this storage room, all to themselves for the moment. The android detected no movement behind them, and the Vekimen that had left through the left branch of the nearby intersection had yet to reappear. Of course, now they had nobody to question, left with a room full of dead or unconscious Vekimen. Skade wasn't incredibly familiar with Vekimen technology, but it was easy enough to take stock of the room and decide it was full of instruments and equipment for making repairs to the station and its machinery. Both inside and outside, likely why this room was so close to the airlock.

Edtoto was mildly unaware of the shouts she heard from the team, a tinge of bloodlust starting to get to her. Suddenly, she felt someone's arms wrap around her and her body get pulled back violently causing her to give out a loud snarl. Once she managed to get free, she spun around and snapped her teeth. "What the hell was tha-" she started before getting the stern point from Hasewega. She scowled under her armoured Helmet,growling audibly at the command. Something was obviously wrong with her, as she clearly wasn't the Edtoto everyone else knew and loved, but her armour hadn't locked up yet. She was still there as far as her armour was concerned.

Regardless, she bit her tongue so to speak. It was hard for her to be treated as such on her own station, but she had to remind herself her rank meant nothing until contact was made with other Vekimen. So, she subdued herself to playing a GPS for the rest of the group, giving the group directions around the station, and threw the sector her Family Den was located. She felt a bit off, the place so dead she could barely recognize it, but she had to stop for a moment.

Something was wrong... Immediately wrong. She held up a hand to indicate a hold, pinging Hasewega to stop moving so she could listen closely. Vekimen were hard to find when they wanted to hide, even to other Vekimen...

((Hey LAderen Team! Starting the day off with a potential International incident by attacking unarmed, non-hostile civilians! Love it Regardless of the ambiguity of if they could or could not be hostile, points for ruthlessness. I guess I don't need to control them now ))

YSS Heartbreaker, Bridge

"As you wish, Taii.", Yui replied, chattering briefly over the comms with the I'ee still aboard the Ee'ith sphere in the landing bay. Sally had now calmed down, standing quietly beside her sister, anxiously watching the team disappear into the station, leaving her siblings alone to guard the bay.

Shuttle Bay, Jodan

The suited I'ee guarding the shuttle bay did not appear to have any means of communicating verbally with each other, let alone with the Yamataian team. It took a while for those guarding the shuttle to understand Ingrid's request as a result, but they did immediately recognise Okami's severed head for what it was. One of them hugged Ingrid's leg sympathetically, while another gingerly took the bloody helmet from her hands and clutched it against her thorax, tottering off to the Yamataian shuttle to safeguard it there. The others remained clustered around the entrance to the station, or clinging discreetly to the Yamataian shuttle's hull, their weapons and gazes trained upon the looming darkness of the corridor as the team disappeared inside.

Space

With the infected Vekimen shuttle destroyed, the patrol craft which had deployed the I'ee team began to move ponderously back to its original position, moving with slow, careful bursts from its engines to avoid damaging the Vekimen station.

Ladder Corridor, Chudan

Alexis looked around for something to tie the Vekimen up with. "We should either take these two with us, or hide them. They're easy pickings for the Mishu like this."

Main Corridor, Jodan

Yuko, who was more than scared, quietly followed everyone, and was only a step or two behind Kiko. She had her gun ready, and well...had high doubts she was even going to hit a target. She just hoped she would point in the enemies direction, pull the trigger, and hope they would die. You could barely hear Yuko, except for her footsteps, and it would almost seem as if she was mute, but really...she just didn't feel like talking or doing anything of the sort. She was still very disturbed by her allies death, and even more disturbed by the fact of how scary this mission actually was. Yuko was (go figure) deep in thinking. I thought this would be more like an investigation rather than what it feels like...this almost makes me think of that one movie where the one guy is invisible and kills off a bunch of military guys...except that was fake...this is real. More importantly, why am I thinking about movies at a time like this!? At any moment, I could have my head sliced off...or ripped off...or I could be choked...or blown up, yet I'm thinking about movies! You're an idiot Yuko. You really, really are. Anyway, where am I going? I've completely forgot...god I'm horrible. To forget stuff at a time like this is horrible too.
"Um...." Yuko started, but quickly closed her mouth and blushed. She didn't want to sound like a complete idiot infront of her allies.

Main Corridor, Jodan

Hasewega felt her stomach churning as she moved through the station. Not because of the gore that decorated the floors; the last mission had numbed her to that to some degree. The loss of the medic was slightly unnerving but the time to worry about that had already passed when her helmet rolled out into the hangar. The current away team seemed for the most competent, so not much to worry about there.

It was Edtoto that was bothering her. The sudden snarling and growling from the ambassador still stuck with Hasewega she was led directed through the halls. This didn't seem like Edtoto at all. The minkan felt a little bit of guilt the way she ordered Edtoto to stay but what was she do? It was for her own safety, Hasewega tried to reason with herself before she notice the Edtoto pinging her to stop. She didn't bring her rifle down as stopped in front of the group, her eyes constantly scanning around for any sort of movement.

"What is it?" Hasewega asked over the comms towards Edtoto, keeping her gaze towards the front of the group.

Laderen Corridor, Chudan

Once the immediate ‘threat’ was gone, the surprise that Skade had felt a moment earlier now hardened to anger. Oh, I've put up with this crap for far too long.

“Yeah,” the technician said, pulling a roll of Molecure tape out of her butt pack, which she tossed at the other Neko. “Good idea. Maybe we should just take them back home with us and throw a freaking tea party.” Shaking her head in disgust, she calmed herself down enough to look around at the equipment in the room, looking at her options.

“It’s not enough,” she said, looking away from Alexis, “that you decided to unilaterally decide to knock out the people that we need to talk to, or that you hurt the very people we came to help, you did it in the way that the Vekimen are most likely to hear. If you just stunned them,” she continued, checking out what looked like meter-wide hull patches, “we could just retreat and take our time to talk to them, probably with some consternation and awkwardness, but possible to deal with.”

“But no,” the Neko said, turning to look at her crewmate, “you gave them the chance to react, with who knows how many Vekimen in earshot. Give them a minute to group up and we’ll be swarmed. As such,” she continued, picking up an arm full of the hull patches, “we’re retreating back to the airlock, forting up, and hoping we get a chance to explain ourselves. If worse comes to worse, we go back through the airlock, and get to explain to the Taii why we didn’t complete our mission.” Or get captured and possibly killed for breaking and entering. Joy. “Bring our unconscious friends,” she said, walking out of the room. “If nothing else, they’ll be less likely to grenade us if we got,” she sighed, “hostages.”

Motioning to Takeshi, Skade started back towards the airlock, sending out a pair of drones to make sure she wouldn’t be surprised from the front. “Watch our back, Saba-hei. You’ll probably get some action soon enough.”

Laderen Corridor, Chudan

Alexis looked up regarding Skade. "I'm only doing my job to the best of my ability. If you have a problem with it you can wait until after the mission to talk to me about it. In the mean time we are on a space station in a small team with a confirmed Mishu infestation. There has already been one confirmed casualty so you'll have to excuse me for taking precautions. I had no way of knowing if these two were infected or not from the back so I neutralized them." Alexis lifted the two up and put them into crates. "I will continue this mission with or without you. Afterwards I will take full responsibility for my actions, but until then I'm making sure that we have the highest chance of survival and mission success."

Alexis began to walk down the other corridor making sure to stay quiet and unseen.

Laderen Corridor, Chudan

Stopping in her tracks, Skade had to take a second to put the hull patches gently onto the floor, as her first impulse was to throw them like a petulant child.

“I’m sorry,” the technician said, not bothering to look in Alexis’ direction, “do you remember what our mission is to begin with? We’re supposed to talk to the Laderen, not smack them around like we’re infiltrating an enemy camp. The only reason we were was to pick our opportunity to talk to them. As for not knowing if the Vekimen were infected, maybe you could have asked me why I thought they weren’t. Maybe you could have asked what they were saying. Maybe you could do anything else then acting like I’m a freaking idiot!”

Shaking her head in disgust again, Skade continued, “By this point, I’m becoming convinced that we’re only going to be getting briefed after getting downloaded into a new body. And you think that going in deeper into apparent enemy territory gives us higher chances of survival? Good luck, Ms. Lone Wolf. Go and prove me wrong, like you’ve been trying all freaking afternoon.”

Leaning over to pick the hull patches up again, mic muted because of her mutterings and curses that were bouncing around in her helmet. Before she picked up her fort making material, she had a worrying thought come to her. Are you going to get another crewmate hurt and maybe killed? Another SAINT no less?

Straightening, the Ittô Hei stared at the wall in front of her. It’s not my fault if she doesn’t know when to say she’s wrong.

Sure, her doubts replied, but how will you feel when she gets what’s coming to her? Satisfied that you were right?

No…Skade thought.

So, you’re going to break down like you did with Sayoko?

Shut up.

Or like how you felt when Rei went off the air?

Shut up, she thought, her fingers curling into a fist.

Or Edtoto got injured because you were separated?

I said, SHUT UP! she thought, punching the wall with her Mindy-enhanced strength.

The crunch of the metal and the ringing sound that followed brought the technician out of her fugue. Blinking at the damage she had done to the innocent wall, she put her helmet against the wall, not sure if she was embarrassed, angry, or a mix of the two.

Opening up a private line, Skade asked, “Takeshi-kun, is she right and I’m being an idiot? No matter what, we can’t undo taking the Vekimen out. What am I supposed to do now?”

Laderen Corridor, Chudan

The android accepted Skade's orders and turned to watch for incoming threats. He was suddenly aware of Alexis squeezing past him. In the wrong direction. The conversation between Skade and Alexis played back in his head. Now he understood what was going on. "SAINT agent or not, that is not a good idea. Your chance of survival alone is not optimal." Takeshi said quietly to Alexis.

He was alarmed to hear loud banging noises from behind. Skade's voice in his head assuaged his fears. She must have been preparing defenses. If he had seen her behavior he would have feared for her sanity. "I agree with your assessment, Skade-san. Would you like me to stun her and drag her to safety?" Takeshi replied privately. His tone was so casual he could have been discussing the weather.

There may have been a hint of a smile on his face at the thought. Alexis caused Skade stress. He wanted to make her pay for it, he realized. Perhaps he was defective. That would be something to discuss with Skade later. For now, he waited for a response and watched the approach.

Laderen Corridor, Chudan

Opening a private channel to the driod Alexis began to speak. "Yes I do realize my own survivability drops but it increases yours and Skade-hei's also they don't have an idea of how many attacked the others and what they are. Vekimen aren't the friendliest of folks they'd rather attack first talk later especially if they're isolated." Alexis sighed. "Take Skade-hei and go I'll hold off whatever comes this way. It's the least I could do to pay you two back." She walked further down the corridor.

Main Corridor, Jodan

Ingrid returned the I'ee's hug as well as she could without compromising her vigilance and then moved into the corridor with Jodan. It was clear that their pace wasn't going to allow the team to catch up with whatever had dragged off Okami's body, but considering the likelihood of an ambush, Ingrid was willing to let the corpse go. Hasewega had chosen a good speed to move through the station.

Edtoto's display of ferocity had gotten Ingrid thinking about the station's resident Vekimen. She hadn't asked enough questions of Edtoto earlier, but she knew that Vekimen could regress to a feral state and become totally berserk. A squid attack would be on Ingrid's list of candidate stressors to trigger feral aggression. But Ingrid was left wondering how Vekimen under the influence of Mishhu parasites would behave. It was possible that freaking out and angry didn't mean suborned. She was so busy mulling this thought that she nearly walked over Edtoto when she halted. Startled out of her thoughts, she realized she needed to take stock of the squad.

Hasewega and Edtoto were sorting things out up ahead. Yuko and Kiko were bringing up the rear. It was hard to read their expressions, but Kiko seemed to be all business. Yuko on the other hand seemed tense, even through the armor. Ingrid called up Yuko's biomonitors and saw she was suffering from first mission jitters. Ingrid vaguely remembered what it was like for her, but greeting aliens while under fire from a vastly inferior enemy didn't seem to translate to the current situation. When Yuko made an utterance, Ingrid simply asked, "Yuko, what's up?"

Main Corridor, Jodan
Yuko, having heard Ingrid nearly jumped, and began responding quickly and nervously "Oh um...n-n-nothing!" Yuko, hoping to sound calm, decided to ask Ingrid the same question. "Erm....w-w-what's up?" Yuko felt her face heat up, and tilted her head a little down, as she usually did when speaking to other people. You're making yourself look like a fool here, Yuko. She thought, her mind a little more focused then it had been before.

Laderen Corridor, Chudan

“No,” Skade sighed, looking up the corridor at the advancing SAINT. “I really don’t want to deal with her when she wakes up from a stun blast. And who knows,” she said, picking up the hull patches and flying back to the airlock, “maybe she’ll get something done.” It’d be a miracle, but we’ll never know until she tries.

Once back at the airlock, she put the patches down and then raced back down the hallway, sending out another set of drones and picking up the older ones. “I’m getting the Vekimen that Alexis knocked unconscious. Just keep an eye out down the other hallways and stun anything that moves until I get back and set the fort up.”

Using the more plentiful supply of drones as radio relays, Skade commed, “Heartbreaker, this is Chudan. Have two unconscious and probably uninfected, repeat, probably uninfected Vekimen in hand near the airlock. Please advise, over.” We’ll leave out the part about Alexis for now.

Main Corridor, Jodan

Edtoto was straining to listen, after that little tingle that something was wrong. Sara still had her weapon up, scanning the narrow corridor in front of them, another turn coming up, with one of the many branches just recently left behind them. It was difficult to focus on the disturbances, as Yuko and Ingrid chatted over coms. But soon she could feel the vibrations focusing on the floor of the corridor, coming closer. A snout protruded from around the turn, followed by a head tilting curiously. The Vekimen shuffling into view, obviously injured. One arm hanging near uselessly, limping as well, tail doing what it could to keep them up. It began to coo for help at the Vekimen-shaped figured near the front, pleading in Ed's native language for help and assistance.

The others could hear the sounds, if not quite understand them. The Vekimen obviously could not hear them, as they were speaking through their armors' communications. The alien slowed to a stop, swinging its head around to look them over, struggling to identify the confusing, armored forms in front of it. "Please....help...friends...hurt..." Unexpectedly, the creature switched to begging for aid in Trade.


Laderen Corridor, Chudan

The two prone Vekimen had their muzzles and limbs bound with Skade's tape, before Alexis unceremoniously dumped them into two half-empty crates in the storage room. Unfortunately, while the two were arguing, they had no Vekimen guide handy to detect unexpected visitors. One of Skade's drones transmitted a view of a toothy maw suddenly crunching down on it, while the other was batted out of the air and smashed. A moment later, the android on watch duty spotted the returning Vekimen patrol. It didn't have quite enough time to warn Alexis before they opened fire, or perhaps it secretly hesitated that extra split second to allow her to be attacked in return for her actions. Either way, a pair of tall, lanky aliens sprayed her Mindy down with what appeared to be small SMGs...accomplishing nothing besides sending bullets ricocheting wildly off her armor and down the corridor. They were snarling and growling out words like 'invaders' and 'intruders' and 'aliens' as they decided to rush the Operative and close to close combat range, showing a bit of that feral side the crew had been worried about.

"They did this to our people, they brought those things here!" Finally the translators had caught up with the Vekimen. Although it was unfortunately happening as several other armed security personnel began to appear from the maze of twisty little passages, all alike, crawling on walls and ceilings.


Main Corridor, Jodan

Although the main disturbance had obviously been the injured Vekimen shuffling towards them, the sounds in the distance had only paused for a moment before reappearing. Increasing in number and strength. Moving closer, thrumming along the walls and ceilings as well. The rest of the team began to pick up warnings from the sensors in their armor now, demanding their attention. There was movement all over the place.

The injured Vekimen switched to Yamataigo unexpectedly, before giving up on the attempt. Snarling, unintelligible even to Edtoto, it opened its jaws wide...disgustingly wide. With sick squelching and popping noises, its face distorted, tendrils disgorging from its maw to lash towards Sara in the front of the group, trying to latch onto her weapon. Ed watched the other Vekimen's face tear itself apart as more tentacles rapidly began to erupt from its skull, protruding from its neck, juices gushing from the tips of some to hiss and bubble as they splattered on the walls.

The movement indicators were all around them now, coming out of the walls, converging on their location as the creatures swarmed out of the den they'd been led into. Rushing along the walls and floors, much like in the other section of the station. Although most of these Vekimen were armed with bladed, grasping tendrils instead of firearms.

Edtoto remained silent, taking note to yell at the other two for not paying attention to what the hell was going on. She needed to hear damnit! Stop talking on the coms! She didn't have much time to vocalize anything, though, when a Vekimen crawled out of a tunnel looking oddly hurt. At first, Edtoto felt a pang of guilt as the Vekimen approached asking for help. She started to walk over, trying to talk to it, but then it spoke Trade. Anyone paying ay attention to Edtoto's vitals would see a spike in her heart rate and several other signs of stress at this revelation. Those paying attention to Edtoto physically would see her tail poise quickly as it did when she was about to fight someone.

The sound of gunfire reverberated through the station, at least loud enough for Edtoto to feel. There was a fight? Then how did...

"Hasewega!" She shouted as the Vekimens mouth opened and a monstrosity started to pour out of it. The Lizard didn't even think, launching herself forward to tackle the one immediately attacking the Minkan. There were several reasons why she did this. Hasewega with her advanced weaponry would be more effective than the Robo lizard in a ranged fight, while Edtoto was more than well suited for a Melee. Then there was that /no one/ hurt Hasewega except her... And even then only under certain circumstances.

Finally... She just couldn't help herself. 300+ pounds of blood hungry armored Vekimen slammed into the lead Vekimish ((As a certain ethereal giant bug might say)) with all the force her suit would allow her. The two scrambled in a tangle of tentacles and limbs, teeth, both natural and metal flashing as the two fought to gain the upper hand. The sound of their fight, and how it was so much more real than anything Edtoto had ever done on the ship, gave a raw, animalistic impression...

Main Corridor, Jodan

Ingrid briefly regarded Edtoto after her chastisement but was about to continue her conversation only to be interrupted by the injured Vekimen crawling into view. "Watch it," she cautioned. "Let me grab my scanner before we render aid." She began working with her scanner, getting as far as pulling the lifeform scanner module out of her bag when the Vekimen begged for help in Trade. Ingrid cocked her head in puzzlement. She was caught pondering the unexpected linguistic versatility of the injured lizard-person when her suit began to sound alarms. The beeping set her to scrambling, fumbling, jamming the scanner module in.

"Help... please..." the Vekimen pleaded in Yamataigo.

She set it to scan for hemosynthetic lifeforms and pointed it at the crawling form. Ingrid's eyebrow raised as she saw the screen readout. The Vekimen was definitely infested. She opened her mouth to warn the team, but the lurking monster knew the scanner had identified it and its maw opened, and opened again, and again. "That's what's up," she said instead.

Edtoto leaped onto it and Ingrid checked the scanner and swung it around to get a better picture of the incoming threats. She checked to see which way most of them were coming from and planned to get the squad moving forward if they were being pushed from behind, or to fall back if they were caught from the front. If they were equally surrounded, well...

A wave of anxiety hit her and she gripped her LASR to keep from getting swept away.

"We've got inbound!" she bellowed, and pointed herself towards the biggest threat as she put away her scanner.